Process of brewing.



I No.' 746,320.

I UNIT D STATES Patented December s, 1903.-

PATE T OFFICE.

HERMAN E.-FREES, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO WAHL &; HENIUS,

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PROCESS OF BREWING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 746,320, dated December8, 1903.

Application filed June 27,1903. Serial No. 163,833. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMAN E. FREES, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Brewing, of whichthe following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to enable corn, more particularly maize,(but including other cereals used in brewing,) ground in its naturalstate, who used in preparing the mash instead of requiring it to bedegerminated and the husk to be removed, as 'it is the common practiceto do.

Unprepared raw cornis objectionable for brewing purposes because of thedisagreeable taste it imparts to the beer, due to the oil it contains,amounting to four to five per cent., principally in the germ and thecells close to the husk, so that removal of the germ and husk removesfrom the corn the greater part of the oil. The removal of these parts,

which is accomplished byspecialmachinery I designed for the purpose andproduces hominy, adds materially to the cost of the cereal for brewingpurposes and does not effect entire removal of the objectionable oil,for the .hominy, which is sold according to the degree quantity of whichvaries, according to the degree of fineness of" the cereal, from aboutone-half of one per cent. to about two and one-half per cent.-

In the ordinary practice of brewing most of the fatty oil of the corn isintercepted in the grains by straining off the wort through them, thoughsome of this oil gets into' the wort, but is not objectionable, becauseit does not impart to the beer a strong corn taste. There is, however,in the four to five per cent. of corn-oil referred to a very smallportion which I believe to be an essential or ethereal oil, whichcharacterizes the corn flavor in the corn-oil and which if allowed toenter the wort imparts to it an undesirable corn flavor. The immediatepurpose of my invention is to prevent this particular portion of the oilcontents of the corn from entering the wort by saponifying that portion,thereby to adapt it be intercepted by the grains in drawing ofi thewort. This objectionable portion of the oil contents is hereinaftercharacterized as soluble, because the boiling of the mash in the'cookerreduces that 5 5 oil to such a finely-divided condition that itpermeates the liquor and is substantiallyin solution.

My invention consists in the treatment to which I subject the corn toremove its s'olu- 6o residue of the mash indrawing oflf the wort.

To practice my impr0vement,1 employ a suitable alkaline earth,preferably calcium oxid, which will reduce the soluble oil contents ofthe corn to an insoluble soap. I add the calcium oxid to and thoroughlymix it with the water and the corn, ground in its natural state-that isto say, with its germs and husks, and therefore containing all of itsoil-using by preference about one pound,

more or'less, of the alkaline substance to five 7 5 thousand pounds,more or less, of-the ground cereal, preferablydoing this in the cooker;although the proportion of the alkaline substance employed will varyaccording to the character of the corn and the quantity of the oilcontents to be saponified. It will be understood that in mentioningproportions the character of the water used is not taken intoconsideration, so that where the water is rich in mineral substanceswith which the alkaline substance combines enough of the latter shouldbe added to neutralize such mineral substances. The alkaliisadded,either ina dry or a wet state, to the cold-water contents of thecooker, (of which it is customary to use about 1.2 barrels to each onehundred pounds of corn,) with which it is thoroughly mixed. After thisthe unprepared ground raw cereal is introduced, and the mash isthereupon conducted in the same manner as when prepared cereal, such asgrits, is usedna mely, by mashing and cooking the cereal with the usualadmixture of malt, running the contents of the cooker into a malt-mash,mashing the mixture in a mash-tun, and drawing 01f the wort for furtherusual or suitable treatment to produce beer.

The action of the alkaline substance on the cereal is'to reduce itscontained soluble oil to an insoluble soap, which is efiectivelywithheld from the Wort in drawing it OK by being intercepted by thegrains in the mash-tun. The treatment relieves the cereal of itscontained soluble oil without any considerable labor or trouble and atan expense which is insignificant compared with that of preparing thecereal in the manner commonly employed, as hereinbefore stated, or byflaking the grits or meal, which is another, but even more expensive,form ofpreparing the cereal, adapting it to be used directly in themashtun, since its starch constituent is gelatinized by the process ofmanufacturing it and is readily acted upon by the malt diastase.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isa 1. Inbrewing beer, the process of removing from corn its contained solubleoil, which consists in mixingwith the groundicorn an alkaline earth andwater and cooking the mixture, thereby reducing the soluble oil contentsto an insoluble soap, mashing the cereal, drawing oif the wort andintercepting the soap in the grains from which the wort is separated. 2.In brewing beer,ttheprocess of removing from corn its contained solubleoil, which consistsin mixing with the ground corn calcium oxid and waterand cooking the mixture, thereby reducing the soluble-oil contents to aninsoluble soap, mashing the cereal, drawing off the wort andintercepting the soap in the grains from which the wort is separated.

WALTER N. WINBERG, ALBERT D. BAOCI.

